A Florida mom was arrested for allegedly branding her two young daughters so that she would be able to tell who they were.
Police in Port Charlotte said that 23-year-old Kayla Oxenham took a stick she heated with a lighter and burned her daughters, ages 5 and 7, so that she could identify them, WFTV reported.
Oxenham was arrested on Monday and charged with felony child abuse.
Investigators were alerted to the alleged abuse in March when the girls' day care noticed burns on their bodies and alerted the Florida Department of Children and Families.
The 7-year-old told authorities that Oxenham burned her and her younger sister with a lit stick so she could keep tabs on them. The 7-year-old also said her mother did it because she promised to give them ice cream, WFTX reported.
Doctors who examined the girls found scars that are consistent with being burned, WINK reported. Oxenham said she "forgot how much she loved fire" when she allegedy branded them, according to the New York Daily News.
The abuse apparently did not stop with the burnings. On another occasion, Oxenham repeatedly slammed her youngest daughter's head in the wall and kicked her side because she locked a cat in the bathroom, the 7-year-old told investigators.
"Mortified that someone would do that," Jessica Nystrom, a neighbor of Oxenham's, told WINK. "Then come to find out that it is my neighbor, that's insane."
Oxenham, a medical assistant, denied beating her youngest child, WFTX reported. She also did not provide an answer when authorities questioned her about the burn marks.
The children have reportedly been removed from their mother's custody and are now with the father of the 5-year-old.
The mother, who has no previous criminal record, was released after posting bond, according to the Daily News.
